• Published 31st Aug 2018
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SAPR - Scipio Smith



Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.

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Kali (Rewritten)

Kali

“Mom?”

Of all the people that Blake might have expected to see standing on the other side of this door, her mother was certainly not one of them. What was she doing here, in Vale, in Beacon? How had she known where and how to find Blake? What … what was she going to say to her, now that she had come?

Mom said nothing. Rather, she stepped forward, pushing the door open the rest of the way to give her space to enter — neither Yang nor Blake tried to hinder her in that, the former stepping back to give her the room — and enfolded Blake in her arms, drawing her in and holding her close.

“I’ve missed you, my little baby girl,” she whispered.

Her cheek rested against the side of Blake’s face; Blake could feel it there, warm against her own skin. She could feel her mother’s hair brushing against her, tickling the side of her nose just a little bit.

She could feel the strength in her mother’s arms as she held her, but she could feel the softness too; Mom wasn’t willing to let her go just yet, but it was not uncomfortable.

Far from it, in fact.

And Blake could hear her mother’s voice, hear the lack of anger in it, or disappointment. There was warmth there, and longing too, and a touch of sadness for which Blake supposed that she bore the largest share of responsibility, but there was no anger in it.

Blake relaxed into her mother’s embrace, resting her head upon her shoulder, tentatively raising her hands up to join them around Mom’s waist.

“I … I’ve missed you too, Mom,” she whispered.

Mom held onto her, not letting her go. Blake might have felt that it was going on for a little while, but, well, she’d been six years away; that was long enough that Mom deserved a nice, long hug if she wanted one.

Professor Goodwitch cleared her throat. “Yes, well, if that will be all, ma’am? I’m sure that Miss Belladonna can show you back to the docking pads when you’re ready to leave.”

That prompted Mom to relax her embrace, although she kept one arm upon Blake’s shoulder even as she turned away from her to face the professor.

“Yes, that will be fine,” she said, her mellow voice acquiring a touch of a more businesslike tone, if only for a moment. “Thank you, Miz Goodwitch.”

Professor Goodwitch nodded, or perhaps bowed her head — it lay somewhere in the space between the two. “Of course. I’m sure that Professor Ozpin would like to speak to you at some point while you’re in Vale, but, for now, I’ll leave you to catch up.”

She turned away, and walked away, the carpet of the hallway muffling her footsteps as she went.

There was a moment of silence.

“Nora, Ren,” Yang said, breaking said silence, although she kept her voice subdued while she did so. “We should go and take care of that … thing.”

“Yes!” Nora squawked. “Yes, that ol’ thing that we … need to take care of. We should totally do that now.”

Mom laughed apologetically. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to drive you out of your room. Please, stay, it’s alright.”

“No, ma’am, it’s fine,” Yang assured her, waving off her concerns with a flap of one hand. “You don’t want the three of us gawking at a moment like this.”

Mom smiled. “That’s very kind of you, Miss…” She glanced at Blake. “Blake? Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

“You only just got here,” Blake reminded her. “But yes: Mom, these are my teammates … my current teammates, Yang Xiao Long, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren. They … they took me in after I had some trouble at school earlier this year. Everyone, this is Kali Belladonna, High Chieftainess of Menagerie … and my mother.”

Yang smiled. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.” She paused for a second. “And now we’ll give you two some privacy. Come on, guys.”

Blake retreated into the dorm room, drawing her mother — who still had a hand on Blake’s shoulder — with her, giving space for Yang, Ren, and Nora to shuffle out, glancing at Blake and murmuring polite nothings to her mother as they did so.

Blake heard Yang knocking on a door — presumably SAPR’s door, given the proximity — in the moment before the Team YRBN door shut behind them.

Leaving her alone, with her mother.

Her mother whom she hadn’t seen for nearly six years. Not since she and Dad had boarded the ship bound for Menagerie and Blake had not.

It had all been very well-choreographed, so much so and so conveniently that Blake had sometimes found herself wondering if the whole thing had been arranged by Sienna Khan. The White Fang had wanted her father gone, and frankly, so had their sympathisers outside the movement; they wanted him to make way for a new approach, for Sienna, who had studied the tactics of the great heroes of the liberation struggle, the strategies that would lead them to the promised land. And, by that time, Dad had wanted to go as well; he was tired, worn out by failure and by the waning of support for him within the movement. But, by the same token, there was no desire to humiliate him either, to defenestrate him into obscurity. As Sienna had taken over the leadership of the White Fang, she had paid Blake’s father a generous tribute, praising his eloquence, his dignity, and the energy with which he had inspired a mass movement. ‘When the histories of our struggle are written, Ghira Belladonna will be justly remembered as a titan of the movement,’ Sienna had said, before she began to turn the White Fang into the antithesis of everything Blake’s father stood for.

But what to do about her father? How to remove him without shame or admission of failure, and how to prevent him from lurking in the background, a king over the water, a magnet for discontent and a source of interventions that the new High Leader might find unhelpful?

And just like that, the High Chieftain of Menagerie had died. An old man, he had no heirs of his body, and so the people of Menagerie had acclaimed Ghira Belladonna as their new High Chieftain, an honour he had, of course, graciously accepted. And so it had gone, almost like a dance: the Belladonnas gone to Menagerie, Dad resigning the leadership of the White Fang with his dignity intact and going to Menagerie where he would be far removed from the activities of the White Fang and in no position to comment upon the new direction in which his successor was leading them.

Very convenient for all concerned, but not for the one Belladonna who had not wanted to go to Menagerie, to abandon the fight in the kingdoms of Remnant, the Belladonna who had believed in Sienna Khan, her plans, her tactics, her proposals.

The Belladonna who had wanted to see it through, and in so doing had been forced to choose between her parents and her ideals.

The ideals that she had … well, either she had betrayed the ideals, or the ideals had betrayed her. The truth probably lay somewhere in the middle between the two.

That had been the last time that she had seen her mother, when she stood on the pier and watched their ship sail away. Mom had been standing on the stern, looking back at her, or at least, Blake had thought that she had been looking back, but when Blake raised a hand to her, Mom had only turned away.

It had been Sienna Khan into whose shoulder she had cried, while Adam had stayed with her that night so that she didn’t have to be alone.

Whatever might be said about their goals, it could not be denied that they had used her kindly, and with gentleness.

I have no personal quarrel with either of them, or with most in the White Fang, only general arguments.

All of which thoughts were somewhat of a distraction from the present reality: her mother returned, with her, alone in this room.

She was alone with her mom for the first time in six years.

With her mom and a tied tongue.

She had no idea what to say. She had to say something, but … but what? What could she say that could scale the wall of six years separation, of the words said before they parted, of all that had happened to her since?

Mom’s hug had been warm, welcoming, perhaps that should have been an invitation to Blake to speak, but … but still, she could not find the words.

“Why don’t we sit down?” Mom suggested, picking up perhaps upon Blake’s hesitation and uncertainty; she’d always been very perceptive. “That window seat looks quite comfortable.”

She guided Blake to the window that neatly divided the dorm room in two, between the beds of Yang and Blake on one side and Nora and Ren on the other. The two of them sat down there, although the curtain was already drawn and there was no light coming in through the window, nevertheless, they sat, facing one another, sitting almost as if they were riding horses sidesaddle, legs skewed off to one side.

“So,” Mom said, “this is where you sleep?”

Blake nodded. “Yes,” she murmured. “This is it.”

Mom looked around. “It certainly looks comfortable,” she observed. “Although you don’t seem to have done much to personalise it.” She paused. “Is it at all awkward, sharing a room with a boy?”

“There’s a screen there,” Blake said, pointing out the presently folded-up green canvas room divider that sat between the beds of Ren and Nora. “At night, Ren unfolds it to separate himself from us girls.”

She thought for a moment about the fact that she had never seen any such thing in Team SAPR’s room when she had stayed there; it seemed strange to think that Yang or Nora might be more modest in such matters than Sunset, Pyrrha, or Ruby, but apparently, it was so.

“Ah,” mom said. “I see.”

The inessential smalltalk apparently exhausted, the silence returned, settling upon them with all the weight of the matters that lay between the two of them.

Blake looked down at her lap, and her hands which were balled up in her lap. “Are you … is Dad here too?”

“No,” Mom replied. “He had to stay behind; his duties on Menagerie demanded his attendance.”

“Right,” Blake murmured. “His duties, of course.” She hesitated. “Mom… what are you doing here? How did you know where to find me?”

“Not because you told me that you’d left the White Fang, or decided to train as a huntress, or that you were thinking about joining the Atlesians,” Mom said, her voice sharpening a little like a cat extending its claws. “I was surprised to get a letter from an Atlas student named Rainbow Dash—”

“Rainbow Dash!?” Blake squawked.

“She sent me a photograph of you and a girl whom her parents confirmed to be this same Rainbow Dash,” Mom went on, “and she told me that you’d left the White Fang, gone to Beacon, been exposed as having been a member of the White Fang, had it covered up by Vale and Atlas, worked with Atlas, were considering joining Atlas, and…” — Mom reached out, and took Blake’s hands in her own — “and you’d done some things that hurt you.” Mom paused for a moment. “Well … with all of that, how could I not come running?”

Blake was silent for a few moments longer. Rainbow Dash had written to her mother. Rainbow Dash had written to her mother? Rainbow Dash had written to her mother?

What right did she have to do any such thing? Who did she think she was, deciding what was best for Blake like that?

The same person who decides what’s best for all her other friends?

That doesn’t mean that she should do it to me; there are big differences between me and the likes of Pinkie or Fluttershy.

I’m going to kill her.

Blake looked into Mom’s eyes, the golden eyes that Blake had inherited from her, shining with desire to help her daughter, in spite of all the time that had gone by and everything that had passed between them.

Or I might thank her instead.

“I … I…” I don’t know where to start. “I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered. “You and Dad, you were right about the White Fang, about Sienna’s vision, about the violence; I … I should have listened to you, I had no right to—”

“Shhh,” Mom urged, “Shhh, it’s alright, Blake; there’s no need to go over all of that again. It’s all in the past now. Washed away by the sea.”

Blake looked away, looking at the red curtain that had been drawn across the window. “It’s not that simple,” she muttered.

“It can be,” Mom said, reaching up and taking Blake’s chin with one hand, turning Blake’s head so that she was looking at her mother once. “If we want it to be. I didn’t come here to fight with you about things that happened six years ago. I came here to see you now, my daughter, grown up to be a very beautiful young woman.” She grinned. “Obviously, you take after your mother that way.”

“Mom,” Blake said, a little laughter touching the edges of her voice as she pushed her mother’s hand away, a blush rising to her cheeks.

Mom chuckled. “There’s that smile I remember.” She waited a second. “You can tell me as much or as little as you like. There’s nothing that I need to know, but at the same time, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I wouldn’t like to know.”

Blake bowed her head a little. Once again, she was left with the problem of where to start. There was so much to tell, six years to tell, but … but at the same time, she didn’t really want to talk about those years with the White Fang, and in spite of what Mom had said, Blake thought it wasn’t unlikely that that was really what Mom wanted to hear in any case.

“I … I left the White Fang a little over a year ago,” Blake said. “I … it was all too much, it had gotten too much, the violence, Adam. It wasn’t about results, it wasn’t about making a point, it was just about killing, because we could, because we wanted revenge, it was about paying back the cruelty of men with even more cruelty. When I realised that, when I couldn’t deny it anymore … I left. I left the White Fang, I left Adam… I was in Vale already—”

“But you could have gone anywhere,” Mom said. “You could have come home.”

Menagerie is your home, not mine, Blake thought, but it would have sounded like a rebuke to have said so, and a rebuke was not merited.

“Could I have?” she asked instead.

“Yes!” Mom insisted, leaning forward. “Blake … there is no world in which we would not have welcomed you back with open arms.”

“Even—”

“You’re our daughter,” Mom declared. “There is nothing that you could say or do to ever change that, or change how much we love you.”

Blake glanced. “I … I love you too, Mom,” she whispered, “and I’m glad to hear you say that, really, I am, but … I didn’t go to Beacon just because I thought that I wouldn’t be welcome in Menagerie; I went to Beacon because I know how to fight. It’s one of the only things that I really know after five years with the White Fang. It’s something I can do. It’s something that I can do well, and just because I didn’t want to fight for the White Fang didn’t mean that I wanted to throw away Gambol Shroud and live in peace on Menagerie. I wanted to fight for something that was worth fighting for. And I found that in Atlas.”

“In Atlas?” Mom repeated, disbelief in her voice. “So it was true what Rainbow Dash said, you are considering it?”

“I’m more than considering it by now,” Blake admitted. “That letter is a bit out of date; I’ve turned in my transfer request already.”

“To Atlas?”

Blake laughed. “I am as surprised as you,” she said. “When I first came here, a year ago, if you’d told me that by the end of this year, I’d be leaving Beacon to go to Atlas instead, I would never have believed it. I mean … Atlas. And when Rainbow Dash and I first met, we hated one another. I thought she must hate herself and be ashamed of what she was to sell out her people that way, and she thought … well, the fact that she thought I was human didn’t make it easier for her to hear what I was saying.”

“'Human'?” Mom repeated. “Why did she—?”

“I was hiding my ears with a bow,” Blake explained. “I didn’t want to deal with being a faunus, even in Vale.”

Mom raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “So you could say there was an element of projection involved in accusing Rainbow Dash of being ashamed?”

“I wasn’t ashamed,” Blake insisted. “I just … I was afraid.”

“But not anymore,” Mom observed.

"Not anymore," Blake agreed.

She paused, wondering how much to say, and how much not to say. She could say nothing about Salem and the rest, nor would she have said anything about that even if she could, but of the rest? How much did her mom really want to hear?

Everything, she had said, but battles with the White Fang? Was that really what she had in mind?

Perhaps, or perhaps not, but either way, it was difficult to deny their importance.

"The White Fang, Adam, they allied with someone," Blake went on. "Someone named Cinder. She wanted to bring down Vale, with the help of the White Fang."

"'Bring it down'?" Mom repeated. "What do you mean? The obvious meaning worries me."

"The obvious meaning is unfortunately correct," Blake replied. "The White Fang stole dust, lots of dust from all over Vale. I … got involved in trying to stop them, and so did Rainbow Dash," — she decided to elide over the exact how of both Rainbow and herself getting involved in that; it was a part of their relationship Blake preferred to forget and not one she wanted to colour her mother's view of Rainbow — "and so did Rainbow's team, and some other friends of mine you'll have to meet at some point called Team Sapphire, and … a boy, named Sun."

"'A boy'?" Mom said. "You said that very suggestively."

"No, I didn't!"

"Are there no boys on Rainbow Dash's team?" Mom asked. "Or this Team Sapphire?"

"Well, there's Jaune—"

"Then what makes Sun worth singling out?" Mom asked.

Blake paused for a moment. And then a moment more.

"Okay," she said, "we have gone out—"

She was cut off by the squeal of delight passing from her mother's lips.

"Now, this is the kind of news a mother wants to hear! What's he like? Is he broody?"

"Definitely not."

"Thank God for that," Mom replied. "I was worried your taste in reading had carried over to real boys. But what do you mean by 'have'? Did something happen?"

"In a…" Blake trailed off. "I haven't deserved him, not really. I haven't been attentive, haven't been there, haven't … I've asked him to wait while I put myself first, and now…"

Mom waited expectantly for further words which did not come. "'And now'?"

"Now," Blake said, "now, I think, things will be easier. Sun has found something to drive him on; he's moving to Mantle to … how much do you know about the latest scandals involving the SDC?"

"There are always scandals involving the SDC," Mom said. "Since I've been politically conscious, they've never amounted to anything."

"This time could be different," Blake said. "But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. Cinder leaked the fact that I had been a member of the White Fang. She wanted to punish me for interfering in her operations—"

"What does she want?" asked Mom, "a human working with the White Fang? I'm astonished Sienna trusted her."

"This was Adam's decision, not Sienna's," Blake replied. "As for what she wants … there are those who understand her better than I do, but I doubt even they could adequately explain her motivations. It's enough to say that she desires destruction and that she's dangerous."

"And vindictive, it seems," Mom murmured.

Blake nodded. "After my past came to light, I was arrested, briefly. Which is … it's when the Atlesians helped me. When Rainbow helped me. She convinced General Ironwood to get me out of prison so that I could help them deal with the White Fang."

"Not a completely altruistic gesture, then," Mom observed.

"I guess not," Blake admitted, "but far from a strictly functional one."

"No?" Mom asked. "It seems to me as though they were just using you."

"If they were just using me, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to make me feel at home with them, comfortable with them," Blake responded, "and not just Rainbow Dash, but Twilight, Ciel, Trixie, Starlight, General Ironwood … none of them have treated me like an asset to make use of, but as … they've treated me like one of them. I'm not entirely sure why, but they did. They embraced me."

Mom frowned. "The White Fang embraced you once too," she murmured.

"No one from the White Fang wrote to you to let you know where I was or what I was doing," Blake responded.

Not even Ilia, who had always been ever so solicitous of Blake's wellbeing when they had been in Mistral together, had ever done that, but Rainbow had.

Mom nodded. "A good point, well made," she acknowledged. "What happened on those missions with Atlas? I know that something happened, Rainbow told me as much, although she didn't give specifics."

Blake frowned. "The … the White Fang, and Cinder, they tried to breach the defences of Vale and unleash grimm into the city. That's what the dust was for, a giant mine to blast through the defences."

"They really…" Mom trailed off. "My God, is that what the White Fang has come to? Have they really fallen so far?"

"I don't think Sienna would have approved, " Blake said. "At least, I hope she wouldn't have, but Adam…" It had come to the point where there was no avoiding it. "We stopped the attack, we repelled the grimm, but the White Fang … a lot of faunus died. Including Adam."

Her mother went very still, frozen in place, her grip on Blake tightening for a moment. "Adam? Adam's dead?"

Blake nodded. "I … I was there when Sunset..."

"You don't need to say it," Mom said, wrapping her arms around Blake again and drawing her in, turning Blake's head and resting it upon her breast. "My poor baby. I can't imagine what that must have been like."

"You're doing a very good job of pretending that you didn't hate him," Blake observed.

"What I felt about that boy doesn't matter right now," Mom said. "Only how you're feeling matters now."

Blake closed her eyes. "I don't blame myself anymore for what happened—"

"'Anymore'?"

"But that doesn't mean I don't regret his death," Blake went on. She pulled away from her mother, withdrawing so far that they could look at one another again. "I … I want a world where hurt and wounded people like Adam can receive help and sympathy, not be abandoned to sink further into bitterness and hate."

"A worthy ambition," Mom said softly. "And your road to making that dream come true lies through Atlas and its uniform?"

Blake paused for a moment, marshalling her thoughts like a general on a battlefield. "Dad resigned the leadership of the White Fang because peaceful protests, marches, and rallies weren't accomplishing anything. The authorities just ignored them. But the violence pursued hasn't accomplished anything either. Sienna said that those who ignored peaceful protest would listen to violence, but all they've done is fight back against it. So, with those options out, what remains? To work within the system, to rise within it, as high as we can, all the way to the top if possible. Then, when we are the authorities, we'll be impossible to ignore or refuse."

She paused, aware that that made her choice sound as cold-blooded and calculated as the Atlesian offer to keep her out of prison.

"And besides," she added. "I like them: the Atlesians, Dash, and all the rest of them. They have their faults, yes, as Atlas does: they're a little too pleased with themselves, their pride can sometimes stray into the ridiculous, but … with what they've built, I think they have the right to be a little proud. Their camaraderie, more than anything else, their togetherness, the bonds between them impress me and make me want to share in those same bonds, to enjoy the support of so many fighting alongside me, pushing. I can believe that I can do more in the Atlesian military than I ever could as a huntress, just as I believe there is a great well of righteousness in Atlas waiting to be unearthed from beneath the excesses of the Schnee Dust Company. And I believe that that unearthing may have already begun."

"Is this where we return to scandals in the SDC?" asked Mom.

Blake nodded. "The news doesn't seem to have reached Menagerie yet, but Rainbow and I uncovered a series of illicit facilities, operated by bad actors with the SDC; they … they were abducting faunus, to all intents and purposes, holding them as … slaves. We exposed this, Rainbow and I—"

"And nothing was done," Mom said.

"No," Blake countered. "Everything was done. The facilities have been shut down, those involved have been arrested, Mantle is on strike, the dust processing plants have fallen silent. A voice has cried out 'no more.' Everyone believes the SDC will have to yield and grant better terms and conditions to its workforce. And that's something we did, not the White Fang or Dad. I think … I think that proves I'm on the right path. And I'm on it with my friends. Even Sun—"

"Is he an Atlas student too?" asked Mom. "Or is he following you to Atlas for love?"

"Sun's going to Mantle," Blake replied. "Partly … for me, one of the signs I don't really deserve him—"

"In matters of the heart," Mom said, "deserving doesn't really come into it."

"Obviously," Blake replied. "Or else he would have dropped me by now. But it isn't just about me. It's about the people of Mantle, the people who are sometimes forgotten by Atlas amongst the clouds. The point is … it feels like everyone is on this journey with me, lifting me up on the wings of their belief, their confidence."

Mom was quiet, looking at her without speaking. "This … this isn't the life I would have chosen for you," she said, "but it is your choice, and, well, I can't really deny that it's a better choice than the White Fang. Are you certain that this is what you want to do? This is the life you want?"

Blake nodded. "I am. It is."

"You know that it won't be easy?"

"Is anything worthwhile ever easy?" asked Blake.

Mom smiled. "You have my looks, but in spirit, you take after your father: righteous and dedicated. I hope you fare better than he did." She paused. "If this is what you want, then … then what can I do but support you?"

Blake let out the breath she hadn't known that she was holding in. "Thanks, Mom, that … I didn't want things to be … like last time."

"Things are very different from last time," Mom assured her. "You're not a terrorist, for one thing."

Blake snorted. "Mom!"

"Well, it's true," Mom replied. "So, when do I get to meet Sun and Rainbow Dash? Ooh, how about right now?"

"'Right now'?" Blake gasped.

"I am here, after all."

"Sure, but you're going to be staying a little while, right?"

"Perhaps, but why wait?" Mom asked. Her eyes narrowed. "Unless there's something you don't want me to see or know about either of them?"

Blake would have welcomed the chance to give both of them a heads up about her mother's presence before they met her, but it seemed that would be a non-starter. Unless … yes, that might work, even if it would be a little rough on Rainbow Dash.

"Okay," she said. "You're right, since you're here…" She got up off the window seat. "Follow me."


"So, Penny," Rainbow began. She hesitated, because this was kind of a selfish request, but at the same time one that she was well within her rights to make, she thought. Nevertheless, she chose her words carefully. "Now that you're transferring to Beacon, how would you feel about … not going through to the one on ones of the Vytal Festival?"

It wasn't just Penny that looked at her. Ciel and Twilight looked at her too, their heads and gazes snapping up from the book and drone that they had been reading and tinkering with respectively.

Midnight's holographic form appeared from out of Twilight's scroll. "That didn't take you very long, did it?"

Rainbow put her hands on her hips. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You mean to take Penny's vacant slot, I presume," Midnight said.

"Yeah."

"Mmm," Midnight replied. "As I said, that didn't take you very long."

"That…" Rainbow looked away from Midnight and returned her attention to Penny. "It's just that the whole point of sending you all the way in the Vytal Festival was supposed to be to complete your testing for Atlesian service—"

"And to allow Doctor Polendina to bask in his achievement," Ciel added, "even if the rest of Remnant was unaware of the nature of said accomplishment."

"That too," Rainbow acknowledged. "But you're leaving Atlas, you're going to Beacon, so I don't see why we need to finish testing you—"

"So that Penny has a better idea of her strengths and weaknesses before she goes to Beacon," suggested Twilight.

"Do you think you need that, Penny?" Rainbow asked.

Penny said, "Is this … is this about punishing me for leaving?"

"No!" Rainbow said at once. "No, Penny, this isn't a punishment; this is—"

"This is about the fact that Rainbow really wants to compete in the finals," Twilight said.

"Yes, yes, it is," Rainbow declared. "Yes, it is, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I want this. I want to walk out onto that stage and represent Atlas and myself. I want to show what I've got. I've wanted that for years, since General Ironwood helped me get into combat school, since before then. I was willing to put all of that on hold for the good of the mission, and for your sake, but you don't want to represent Atlas. You want to leave, and that's fine, that's your choice, but I don't see why Atlas Academy shouldn't be represented by a student who actually wants to go to Atlas, and, you know, I don't see why I should have to be completely selfless about all this." She paused. "But, if you really want to fight in the finals, then that's fine. Take your chance. Show what you're made of."

"But you'd rather that I didn't," Penny replied.

Rainbow shrugged. "It's not up to me."

"But I don't think it should be up to me either," Penny said. She put down her scroll — she'd been reading about some more of those old Valish knights and the hunt for the crown that had seen one of them turned into a swan — and got to her feet. "I can't say that I don't like the way you've treated me like your mission, not your friend, and then turn around and say 'but it's your mission to send me through to the finals,' now, can I?"

"I mean, you could," Rainbow said. "If you wanted to."

"But I don't want to," said Penny. "I want … I do want to go through to the finals. I want to face Pyrrha, I want to see how much I can do, how far I can go—"

"Then—"

"But that only means as much as you wanting it for the same reasons," Penny said. "So, if we were friends and we both wanted to be the one from our team, how would we choose which of us went through?"

"Hmm," Rainbow mused. "Well, if neither of us were such good friends that one of us would get out of the way for the other, then—"

There was a knock at the door.

"Hold that thought for a second," Rainbow said, holding up one finger as she turned away from Penny and all the rest and strode to the door.

She opened it to find Blake standing on the other side.

Blake was not alone.

"Hey, Rainbow," Blake said. "I don't believe you've met my mom."

Rainbow opened her mouth and made a sort of choking sound out of her throat. Blake's mom? Blake's mother? Lady Kali Belladonna was here, standing right in front of her?

The Lady of Menagerie stood at pretty much exactly the same height as Blake, which was to say she was a little smaller than Rainbow Dash, although unlike her daughter, she carried herself in such a way as to make the height difference seem much less, if it existed at all. She looked … well, she looked a lot like Blake, to be honest; a few years down the line, for sure, but by the same token, ageing very well, she could have been taken for an older sister instead of a mother. She had the same golden eyes as Blake and the same jet black hair, although she wore it much shorter, down to the nape of her neck at the back without coming close to her shoulders, curling upwards at the tips to cut across her cheeks. Her skin was a little more tanned in colour than Blake's, but Rainbow was pretty sure that was more to do with there being more sun in Menagerie than anything else. Like Blake, she had black feline ears, but she had pierced them with gold earrings, two on one side and one on the other. She was dressed in a long white tunic-underskirt, visible through two slits at thigh-level on the black skirt she wore over it, and a white tunic with a silver trim at the plunging neckline. On both her arms, she wore long black arm warmers that extended up past her elbow on her left arm, the arm that Rainbow could see because she was also wearing a black snug with gold, leaf-patterned trim and one baggy sleeve covering most of her right arm. Around her left wrist, she wore a pair of solid-looking gold bracelets, and at the top of her arm warmer, she had a purple bandana tied around her arm.

There was a small, playful smile playing upon her lips as she took in Rainbow every bit as much as Rainbow was taking her in.

Rainbow felt her head spin. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to … etiquette. Etiquette. When meeting Mistralians … two years of this class and nothing on Menagerie?

Come on, it wasn't as if it was Vacuo!

Etiquette demanded a level of respect for foreign cultures — such as officers serving in Mistral bowing to Mistralian aristocrats — but it also said that this should only be done in Mistral, out of deference to the native culture, and not if they should happen to meet elsewhere.

That attitude didn't seem right in this case, with the Lady of Menagerie here.

Lacking any sense of what a Menagerite bow might look like, Rainbow used the old Mantle bow, which was never used in Atlas — who was there in the res publica to bow to? — but which was still taught as a kind of ornamental bauble — or maybe just in case of situations like this.

Rainbow dropped to one knee, hunching her back so she was practically doubled over, curling her right hand into a fist and placing it above her heart, bowing her head. A gesture of absolute obeisance, the gesture of someone who would obey their king in all things, even to the outlawing of art and expression.

"My lady," she said, "I am at your service."

Lady Belladonna had a laugh that was soft, like a shower that pitter-patters on the ground and refreshes without ever getting too uncomfortable. "Come, come, get up! There's no need for that, absolutely no need at all. I'm here as Blake's mother, here to speak to one of my daughter's friends, and it would be much easier if you would speak to me instead of the floor."

Rainbow hesitated for a moment, then, a little slowly — especially by her standards — she got up, retreating into the dorm room towards the back wall. "Would you like to come inside, ma'am?"

"I'd love to," said Lady Belladonna, squeezing past Blake to beat her daughter into the dorm room.

"Ten-hut!" Rainbow snapped.

Twilight scrambled to her feet, while Ciel by contrast made the move from sitting to standing at attention look easy, accomplishing the whole thing in a single motion that managed to look fluid even while possessing the required amount of snap. Penny had already been standing and, so, had a much easier task.

"At ease!" Rainbow yelled, and her teammates adopted the same stance as her, feet apart and hands clasped behind their backs.

"Is all this really necessary?" asked Lady Belladonna.

"Yes, ma'am," Rainbow said. "If we'd known you were coming, we'd have put on dress whites."

"Yeah, this is a surprise, isn't it?" Blake said. "Almost as much of a surprise as finding out that you had written to my mother."

For the first time, Rainbow caught the glint of irritation in Blake's golden eyes.

"I thought that she might write back," Rainbow offered.

"Oh, I'm far too much of a Curious Cat to send a letter when I could come and see my daughter," Lady Belladonna said. "Or talk to the author of the letter to me," she added with a smile, closing the distance between the two of them. "You look bigger than in your picture."

"Thank you, ma'am?" Rainbow ventured.

Lady Belladonna had gotten close enough that she could wrap her arms around Rainbow, pressing her body against that of the Atlas student for a second. "Thank you," she murmured, "for bringing me news of my daughter."

Rainbow felt her face heating up. "I, uh, it was nothing, ma'am."

"No," Lady Belladonna said. "To a mother, it was everything." She paused a moment. "I delivered the other letter to your parents; they confirmed that the girl in the photograph was their daughter, Rainbow Dash. And they kept the picture, just as you thought they might."

Rainbow swallowed. Her throat was dry. "How … how was it, ma'am?"

"Wet," Lady Belladonna said. She smiled. "And very endearing. You have very loving parents."

"Yes, ma'am, I…" Rainbow looked down at her feet.

"It's fine," Lady Belladonna assured her. "That's the wonderful thing about parental love: it's not conditional, and it doesn't run out."

Rainbow didn't know what to say to that, and so said nothing at all.

Blake came to her rescue. "Mom," she said, "let me introduce you to the other three members of Team Rosepetal: Ciel Soleil, Penny Polendina, and Twilight Sparkle. Ciel, Penny, Twilight, this is my mother, Kali Belladonna."

"An honour, ma'am," Ciel declared.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Twilight said.

"Yes, it's very nice to meet you," said Penny.

"The pleasure is all mine," Lady Belladonna. "You've obviously made quite an impression on Blake, and while I won't pretend I'm overjoyed at the idea of her joining Atlas, you all have my thanks for taking care of her."

"The lion's share of the credit in that belongs to our leader, ma'am," Ciel replied. "The rest of us have very little claim upon it."

"Mom," Blake said. "Is it okay if I leave you with the Rosepetals for a little bit and then bring Sun over here?"

Lady Belladonna's eyes narrowed a little, but her voice was pleasant as she said, "Of course, dear, if that's what you think best and your friends don't mind keeping me company."

"Not at all, ma'am," Rainbow said.

"Thanks," Blake said. "I'll be back … soon."

"Take as long as you need," Lady Belladonna said to her as Blake left the room

The door closed after her.

"Is there something about her boyfriend that she doesn't want me to see?" Lady Belladonna asked. "Is he fake, and she needs to get her story straight with an impersonator?"

"If that were the case, I'm afraid we wouldn't snitch on her, ma'am," Rainbow said, "but it isn't. He's real."

"So, you wouldn't tell me if she were lying, but I should trust you that she's telling the truth?"

"Yes, ma'am. Or you could just trust Blake."

Lady Belladonna laughed. "Yes. Yes, I suppose I could, couldn't I?"

"Would you care for some tea, ma'am?" asked Ciel.

"That sounds delightful, thank you," replied Lady Belladonna, "but you don't have to keep calling me 'ma'am."

"I'm afraid we do, ma'am," said Ciel. "Anything else, I fear, would be most improper."

She started towards the door, crossing the distance on a series of swift, martial, almost marching strides. She opened the door but stepped only halfway through it before she turned back to Lady Belladonna.

"I must confess that I had doubts about Blake at first, ma'am," Ciel said. "Doubts about her suitability, her attitude. But she really has done splendidly well, and I would be remiss not to say that we are very lucky to have her."

Lady Belladonna chuckled. "That is not something I need to be told."

"No," Ciel murmured. "I will be back shortly, ma'am."

She closed the door behind her and walked so lightly in the corridor beyond that she could not be heard outside.

"I … I should probably take the chance to thank you, ma'am," Rainbow said. "Without you, my parents, and my friend Gilda's parents, they would never have made it to Menagerie. I owe you a lot for what you've done to help folks like them relocate."

Lady Belladonna shook her head. "Paid in full," she replied. "Not even thanks necessary."

"If you say so, ma'am," Rainbow said. "Ma'am, about Blake joining Atlas—"

"Why do you?"

Rainbow's words stuttered to a halt. "Ma'am?"

"Why do you fight for Atlas, wear that uniform?" asked Lady Belladonna. "Your parents moved to Menagerie, but—"

"I stayed, yes, ma'am," Rainbow replied. "And I'm proud to wear this uniform."

"Why?" asked Lady Belladonna.

Rainbow glanced at Twilight. "Because it's where my home is, and my heart too. Because Atlas has been good to me, and I owe it to return the favour. Because there are people I love that I can't abandon." She smiled. "You know, ma'am, Blake couldn't understand it either, but I got a ton of reasons to go through spanning half my life if you've got time to listen to them all."

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary," said Lady Belladonna. "I suppose I'll have to take your word for it. You grew up in Mantle?"

"Low Town, ma'am."

"Ah, yes, the crater. I knew you couldn't be from Atlas proper, or your parents wouldn't have needed my help to go to Menagerie. If they'd even wanted to."

"Rainbow has spent a lot of time on Atlas," Twilight declared. "She lived with me for a while before we went to combat school."

Lady Belladonna's eyebrows rose a little. "Really? And how did that happen, may I ask?"

"Do you have to, ma'am?" Rainbow asked. "I don't see what the point of these questions is."

"You're right, that was prying, forgive me," Lady Belladonna. "But I'm curious as to who is leading my daughter to Atlas. You can understand that, surely?"

"The most loyal friend that Blake could ask for," Twilight said. "That's who's leading Blake to Atlas, ma'am."

"Rainbow Dash has always gone the extra mile to help Blake," Penny added.

"Your friends think highly of you," Lady Belladonna remarked.

"It humbles me, ma'am," Rainbow murmured, her shoulders sloping downwards.

Lady Belladonna paused a moment. "I notice that you didn't say anything about serving Atlas to help the faunus."

"No, ma'am, I didn't, but that doesn't mean … one of the ways that Blake has changed me is by making me more aware of what it means to a faunus, to be part of this struggle, for want of a better word. Which is ironic because I'm pretty sure Blake has become less concerned with helping the faunus and more concerned with helping everyone, but anyway … it would be great to rise high enough that I had the power to make a difference, but the truth is that even if I knew now that I was never going to make corporal, I would still want to wear this uniform because I'm not in this for myself. I might have done the best I can on my own for Atlas by giving it Blake, but even if that's true, I'm still proud to be a part of something so much bigger than myself. I'm proud to have something bigger than myself to believe in. Because … because Atlas is home, at the end of the day, or at least it's home to the people who are home to me. If I'm going to fight, then where should I fight instead?" She grinned. "I mean, how many reasons do I need?"

Lady Belladonna smiled. "Fewer than you have, I'm sure. And this latest business with the SDC doesn't change your mind?"

"We brought that home to roost, ma'am," Rainbow said. "If anything, I think that proves we're on the right track, Blake and I; we've gotten things done that no one else has."

Lady Belladonna nodded. "I suppose you have," she admitted. She paused a moment. "That picture you sent me made you and Blake look like very good friends."

"I know Blake would take a bullet for me, ma'am, no hesitation."

"And would you take a bullet for her?" asked Lady Belladonna.

"If I had to, but I'd rather take out the bad guy before they got a shot off if I could, ma'am," Rainbow replied.

Lady Belladonna smiled a particularly catlike smile. "And that, Rainbow Dash, is a good answer."


Sun whistled. "So," he said, "your mom, huh?"

"Mmm," Blake muttered as the two of them walked down the corridor in the direction of the RSPT dorm room. Sun was holding onto her arm with both hands and leaning against her a little. It was … kind of nice.

Rather nice, in fact.

"My mom," she confirmed. "I'm sorry to spring this on you at such short notice. It was sprung on me at short notice too."

"Ah, it's fine, don't worry about it. These things happen," Sun declared. "I mean, who hasn't had their estranged mother show up out of the blue from another continent for a surprise visit after your best friend wrote them a secret letter without telling you?"

Blake looked at him.

"Okay, maybe that exact thing doesn't happen to everyone," Sun conceded. "But, you know, stuff happens, stuff comes up, you just gotta roll with the punches. Be like water."

"You're taking this very well," Blake observed a little sceptically.

"It could be worse," Sun replied. "It could be your old man here."

"Yes, yes, that would be worse," Blake allowed. "But even so—"

"The way I see it, this is an opportunity for me," Sun said. "I can win your mom over with the old charm." He winked.

Blake laughed softly. "Well, it worked on me," she said. "Hopefully, it won't work on Mom in quite the same way, but…" She trailed off.

"Is everything okay?" Sun asked.

"I just wish I could prepare you better for this," Blake murmured. "But I'm not sure how Mom is going to react to you. She seemed more enthusiastic about you than she did about anything else, like me going to Atlas—"

"Well, that's good, right?"

"If it stays that way then sure, but what if…" Blake sighed. "You have already put up with so much from me, the last thing I want, the last thing you deserve, is to face a grilling from my mom."

"Your mom can grill me all she wants; I only cook at extremely high temperatures," Sun assured her. He spun Blake around so she was facing him as he took both of her hands in his. "I am certain that your mom is going to like me, because in case you hadn't noticed, I am very, very likeable."

"It's come to my attention."

"But if she doesn't, then so what? I love you, not your mom. This time next year, you'll be in Atlas, I'll be in Mantle, and your mom will be back in Menagerie, and we won't be able to hear her talk about how I don't deserve you. This … it doesn't have to change anything, unless you want it to."

"No," Blake said firmly. "No, I don't. But, I also don't want to patch things up with Mom only to fall out with her again, so … let's call that Plan B."

"Where Plan A is the charm offensive," Sun said. "Got it."

Blake smiled up at him. "Right." She reached up and stroked his face with one hand, running her fingertips against skin weathered by the sun and hardened by the sand.

"I really don't deserve you," she murmured as her fingertips reached his hair.

"Well, too bad," Sun said, grabbing her hand and pulling it away so that he could kiss it. "You're stuck with me. So, any advice?"

"I haven't seen Mom in six years," Blake said. "I'm afraid that anything I could tell you would be pretty out of date."

"Into the unknown, got it," Sun said. "Which, you know, that's fine. I love surprises."

Blake patted him reassuringly on one shoulder as the two of them reached the door to the RSPT dorm.

The two of them stood, side by side, facing the door with neither giving any indication of their intent to knock on it.

"Should I have worn a tie?" asked Sun suddenly. "I feel like I should have borrowed a tie from Neptune—"

"Definitely not; my mom would have smelled the insincerity," Blake said. "Just be yourself, your loveable self."

"'Loveable,'" Sun repeated, "got it."

But there was no getting around it any longer.

Blake knocked on the door.

It was opened by Ciel. "Hello again," she said. "Would you care for some tea?"

"Um, okay," Blake said.

Ciel nodded, and stepped aside to admit them — back or otherwise — into the room.

Mom was sitting on the floor, scratching Spike on the belly idly with one hand, while a cup of tea sat on a coaster on the carpet nearby.

She looked up as Blake and Sun came in. "Ah, you're back," she said. "And you must be Sun." Her eyes travelled up and down him, seeming to pay particular attention to his bare chest. "Well, I can certainly see what Blake sees in you."

"Mom!" Blake groaned.

Sun laughed, although his laughter had a bit of nervousness to it as though he wasn't really sure whether he ought to be laughing. "Uh, thanks, Mrs B. Yeah, I'm Sun, Sun Wukong. It's great to meet you. You raised an awesome daughter!"

The smile froze upon her mother's face. "Well," she said quietly, "I didn't do all of the raising, did I?"

Sun squirmed. "I mean … the first twelve years?"

Mom remained quiet for a few seconds, before her eyes lit up once more, and her smile returned, seeming even brighter now.

"So," she said, "your Blake's boyfriend? I understand that she hasn't always treated you very well—"

"Mom."

"I'm sorry about that; Blake has always had trouble remembering other people's feelings."

"Mom!" Blake squawked. The fact that her mother was … not entirely wrong didn't make it any easier to hear.

"Nah, it's nothing like that; you're way too hard on Blake," Sun replied, waving away Mom's criticism with one hand. "She knows what she wants, and she goes for it. There's nothing wrong with that; in fact…"

Mom's eyebrows rose. "'In fact'?"

Sun looked down for a second. "Well, one of the things that makes Blake so cool is her passion and commitment," Sun said, starting off quietly, almost mumbling. "She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anything stand in her way. I … I've always been a 'go with the flow' kind of guy, letting things carry me along, just going where life took me, so … so when I see Blake facing up to all these obstacles, like when she sees a mountain coming towards her, and she thinks about how she can climb it, not how she can get out of the way, that … it awes me a little bit, and it inspires me, and I wouldn't ask her to change that just so that … just for me."

Blake slipped one hand into his and squeezed it gently.

Mom looked at her, one eyebrow slightly rising, the look on her face turning from smile to smirk.

Blake rolled her eyes. Yes, Mom, she was very lucky.

Very lucky indeed.

"So," Mom went on. "Where are you from, Sun? Or where are you from, son? Or where are you from, son Sun?"

"Vacuo," Sun said. "But I go to school at Haven for now?"

"'For now,'" Mom repeated. "Yes, you're becoming a delinquent, aren't you?"

"I'm going to help people," Sun said. "Instead of waiting another three years to—"

"Get qualified?"

"Do what I already know how to do right now," Sun said.

"In Mantle?"

Sun nodded. "That's right. In Mantle."

"But why?" asked Mom. "Why Mantle?"

"I … I guess I've been inspired to find a cause," Sun said. "I know I'm not the kind of guy who can change the world, but I can stand up for the little guy who might get forgotten otherwise. I … I've been lucky, growing up in Vacuo, not having to deal with what faunus have to put up with in a lot of other places. I can't make it so that faunus in Mantle don't have to put up with it, but I can … I can make things easier for them. Or at least, I hope I can." He smiled. "Plus, you know, it's a lot closer to Blake than Haven is. That's certainly a reason not to stay in Mistral."

"Well, quite," Mom purred, yes, purred. "And if you have the patience to deal with Blake, I'm sure you'll survive in Mantle, too."

"Mom!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Mom said. "But seriously: thank you all for putting up with my daughter."

"MOM!"


Lady Belladonna had missed the last skybus flight from Beacon into Vale, so Rainbow flew her down in The Bus.

To be honest, even if Lady Belladonna hadn't missed the last skybus, Rainbow would still have flown her back in The Bus.

"You sure I can't drop you off right outside your hotel, ma'am?" Rainbow asked.

Lady Belladonna's voice was warm as she said, "Thank you, Rainbow, but no; the skydock will be fine."

"Then I'll have to insist on walking you to the hotel, ma'am," Rainbow replied. "I've heard there's a lot of anti-faunus feeling going around; I don't think you should be walking around a strange city in the dark alone."

"Your friend is very solicitous," Lady Belladonna observed to Blake. Lady Belladonna sat in the co-pilot's seat, claiming it was more comfortable than any seat in the back, while Blake stood behind her, both hands upon the back of her mother's chair.

"She's very protective," Blake replied.

"I care about the people I … care about," Rainbow said. "I make no apologies for that."

"And I wouldn't ask you to," said Lady Belladonna. "It's a dangerous world, after all. But you say that you've heard about anti-faunus sentiment?"

"I haven't been down to Vale recently myself," Rainbow admitted, "but I've heard about it from people I trust."

"Sun's experienced it," Blake added.

"I see," murmured Lady Belladonna. "I suppose this is to do with the White Fang attacks."

"That's their excuse, but that's all it is," Blake declared. "People feeling free to say what they were always thinking."

"I hope not," Rainbow said. "Or else … I hope they weren't all thinking that; I'd rather … I'd prefer if it really was the Breach and the White Fang."

"What would the Breach or the White Fang have to do with telling Sun to go home?" asked Blake.

"In my experience, you're both correct," said Lady Belladonna. "There are those who jump at the chance to legitimise awful views they has always held, but there also those who … had no great feeling for the faunus and recoiled from any overt racism but were susceptible to the course of events and the tide of public turning their concerns about safety into concerns about the faunus in general. What 's happening to the faunus in Vale, have there been any incidents?"

"Nothing big enough to be newsworthy," Blake said, "but that doesn't mean there haven't been any."

"Quite," murmured Lady Belladonna. "Thank you for bringing this up, Rainbow Dash."

"Uh, you’re welcome, ma'am."

Lady Belladonna was quiet a few seconds before she said, "Can I ask you something?"

"You've asked me a fair bit already, ma'am; why stop now?"

Lady Belladonna laughed. "A good point." She paused. "Why did you write to me without talking it over with Blake?"

"I'd like to know that too," Blake huffed.

"Don't be like that; it's worked out okay," Rainbow replied.

She paused, shifting her posture in the pilot's seat, rubbing her back upon the back of the chair. With The Bus on autopilot for now, she looked at both of them.

"Hearing Blake talk about you, and about her father … it made me think about my own parents, and about the way I treated them," Rainbow admitted.

"You don't write to them very often, do you?" Lady Belladonna said.

"No, ma'am," Rainbow replied shamefacedly. "I … The point is that I wanted to apologise to my dad, and I knew that Blake wanted to apologise to her parents as well, only she was too worried about how you'd react." She shrugged. "So I decided to do it for her, because I thought it would do her good to hear from you, like I put in my letter."

Lady Belladonna smiled and kept her eyes on Rainbow Dash as she reached up to take one of Blake's hands. "Well, I'd say it all worked out pretty well. Wouldn't you agree, Blake?"

Blake snorted, but there was a fond smile upon her face as she said, "Yes, Mom, yes, I would.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash."

Author's Note:

Rewrite Notes: This chapter got an almost complete rewrite, which ended up adding in a lot more comedy of parental embarassment, but was mainly done to take account of Blake's changed place in the story, in particular the increased emphasis on her relationship with Rainbow Dash, whom Kali gets to meet before Sunset or any of the other members of Team SAPR.

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